Why has everyone started changing their usernames to real names? It seems mostly mods and some +members.

Sorry if this has already been addressed, I am just curious.

Aheer.R.S.'s summary in the first reply is spot on. Most of the staff started using their real names at Daniel's prerogative to make the site seem more professional and friendly. I don't blame you for missing it though. They didn't exactly announce it publicly, and it didn't have a thread of its own until now. For reference, Daniel's post about it is #242 in the Tech Issues Solved thread. In case the context isn't immediately clear, he quoted Crisp's post #134 in the same thread, but he was really responding to the post Crisp quoted, which is Brando212's post #128 in that thread.

The more interesting question is what's going on with all the resignations among staff. Four supervisors alone retired within the past week.

I am quite impressed that you kept track. Were their resignations announced publicly somewhere, or did you just happen to notice the exact number of new Veteran badges?

On that note, while I am not a staff member here and cannot speak on their behalf, it seems pretty clear that the staff who retired left on good terms. If you look at the official summary of Neowin User groups, you will see a the summary of "Veteran" clearly states that members who are placed in that group are in good standing and contributed a lot to Neowin during their time on staff. Being a moderator, supervisor, or admin takes a lot of time in a community the size of Neowin, so I find it perfectly reasonable that a few staff members decided they needed more personal time. After all, it is far better to do a few things well than many things poorly.

I'll just drop a small reassurance that what xorangekiller said above is correct. Four supervisors have retired due to personal commitments and not due to disagreements of any sort. Not to worry, I'm sure a few other members of staff will soon step up to fill their shoes.

As for using real names, it is indeed to convey a better sense of professionalism. Though I've had my real name as my display name for more than two years...

I'll just drop a small reassurance that what xorangekiller said above is correct. Four supervisors have retired due to personal commitments. Not to worry, I'm sure a few other members of staff will soon step up to fill their shoes.

As for using real names, it is indeed to convey a better sense of professionalism. Though I've had my real name as my display name for more than two years...

Aheer.R.S.'s summary in the first reply is spot on. Most of the staff started using their real names at Daniel's prerogative to make the site seem more professional and friendly. I don't blame you for missing it though. They didn't exactly announce it publicly, and it didn't have a thread of its own until now. For reference, Daniel's post about it is #242 in the Tech Issues Solved thread. In case the context isn't immediately clear, he quoted Crisp's post #134 in the same thread, but he was really responding to the post Crisp quoted, which is Brando212's post #128 in that thread.

I am quite impressed that you kept track. Were their resignations announced publicly somewhere, or did you just happen to notice the exact number of new Veteran badges?

On that note, while I am not a staff member here and cannot speak on their behalf, it seems pretty clear that the staff who retired left on good terms. If you look at the official summary of Neowin User groups, you will see a the summary of "Veteran" clearly states that members who are placed in that group are in good standing and contributed a lot to Neowin during their time on staff. Being a moderator, supervisor, or admin takes a lot of time in a community the size of Neowin, so I find it perfectly reasonable that a few staff members decided they needed more personal time. After all, it is far better to do a few things well than many things poorly.

Nothing impressive here - you hear about events a lot sooner when you're hanging out on Neowin IRC. 'Nuff said,

Also we're still in the works of getting the forum spiced up; the tech issues solved and name changes being one of them. The former you'd definitely notice and is worthy of an announcement. The latter, well unless you're obsessed with whoever's display names were before the change, it's not worthy of broadcasting on a loudspeaker